LoNyLa / TimeWave: Our History

What began as an idea at the Oxford/Cambridge club (London) by a few Yale and Oxford grads mushroomed into a transatlantic network of artists. And has since morphed into a collective focused on using immersive technology to innovate on story form.

Origins of LoNyLa – London, NY and LA

In 2010-2011, our original vision was to create a network, creative lab, producing organisation and broadcasting platform,

LoNyLa linked artists globally to collaborate, develop and present new work for stage, film, TV and transmedia. It combined four main components – community, content development, production and distribution – of the performing arts and entertainment value chain.

By tapping into the power of the Internet, LoNyLa would:

Bridge longstanding geographic and industry divides in the entertainment industry;

Encourage collaboration and networking;

Increase exposure dramatically for artists;

Lower development risk for producers; and,

Broadcast content to remote, unprecedented audiences.

The Network

An international community of artists that used video streaming, multimedia applications and other digital devices to expose new work to audiences beyond home locales.

The Lab

The LoNyLa vLab enabled artists to develop full-length projects over a three-month period. By traveling virtually to three linked hubs – London, New York and Los Angeles – writers were exposed to different creative approaches and processes. Actors and directors across borders (state and national) interacted in real-time.

The Producing Organisation

As LoNyLa evolved, we produced the TimeWave festival in 2013. The festival explored the use of telepresence in live performance and broadcasting to remote audiences.

The Broadcasting Platform

The first lab in 2011 used high-definition video cameras to stream rehearsed readings. As video streaming platforms grew more robust, we migrated to a multi-camera set-up and live editing.